Susan's Funky Workshop

My wife is a Jeweller, she had a workshop at our previous house. We moved into our new property in November last year. As part of us downsizing the new house had limited internal space for her workshop however it has a small wall garden with an old outhouse. We considered the space over two or three months and at the start of the summer set out a plan of action. We wanted to use as much of the materials that were available in the garden this would cut down cost but also we wanted to retain the feel of the garden whilst enhancing it with a funky new space for my wife to work.

Our garden had sleepers in the ground, old bricks; the outhouse had woodworm, leaked, etc. We wanted to retain as much of this building as possible and decided to augment a new build onto the part of the building we retained. The one benefit was the outhouse already had a mains feed and could be used for the new workshop. We sourced and gathered found materials such as a velux window, patio doors; two double- glazed windows, sarkin for the cladding, pallets, etc. All these materials came from skips, friends or advertised locally for free collection. The bricks we retained from the outhouse became the path to the building. The sleepers from the garden became main supports for the facing structure and window ledges and an internal workshop table, (not complete yet). We gathered bottle tops from the pub to decorate the front facing again a work in progress and various items washed up on the beach.

Spend came to around ﾣ700 on concrete, bottom, membranes, wood for the internal frame, roofing felt and insulation and ad-hock sundries. We view the structure as an organic object and continue to work on areas to enhance the aesthetic appearance or the internal work layout for my wife. You will see from the photos the progression and final workshop which is a balance between a workshop on the left and a gin-house on the right. We love the space and the way it looks and functions, water tight and insulated so my wife can fully utilise the space all year round. It has transformed the look and feel of the garden we now have to continue with the surrounding area. There was very little waste to remove, as nearly all materials were recycled back into the new build.